Dear reader: I’m mixing things up a bit. After writing roughly 250 long-form articles over the last 5 years, I’m playing with a different “quick hit” format. For the next few weeks, you’ll notice that I’m writing three short mini-articles instead of one longer one. Let me know what you think!

Why Being a Hero Might Be the Worst Way You Can Lead

Many leaders are “fixers.” They solve problems, make decisions for others, see opportunities and create solutions. This is all a part of leadership.

However, some leaders have too much of their identity or self-worth tied up in being a fixer. They need to be the hero of the story. The plot follows them.

Hero leaders are often very charismatic and popular. They often appear to be doing what’s best for the entire organization. They may even appear to by “martyrs” through their sacrifices for the team.

But, instead of helping, this approach creates a weaker team.

Hero leaders usually don’t create room for other creative, innovative and motivated leaders. So, those leaders leave.

Those who remain tend to want a hero. They want someone who will swoop in, secure their future, solve their problems and figure it out.

What if they no longer need me?

Many leaders fear building independence and autonomy in their teams. What they say to me is, “What if they don’t need me anymore?”

The answer to this is simple: Continue leading. Continue expanding the horizons of your team, creating new opportunities and tackling new challenges.

Leading isn’t “doing for” others. To the degree that a leader does what someone else should or could be doing – is the degree that they aren’t providing leadership.

Did you know? Only 30% of owners successfully sell or handover their business: The nine things they do differently

The majority of all businesses are owned by Baby Boomers. Most of these owners plan to sell or exit their business within the next 3-5 years. Unfortunately, (depending on industry) only 20%-30% will ever successfully sell their business or hand it over to a family member.

Here are the 9 things they do differently:

1. They create “Independence from Ownership”: A business that doesn’t need the owner to be around is a healthier and more valuable business. In fact, a business might not even be able to sell if the owner has to be present for it to operate. (Or if it does, the owner will likely be required to stay on as an employee for 2-3 years.)
2. They build Predictable Processes: Written and proven processes that produce predictable results (like the alliteration?) are valuable. These can include everything from opening and closing procedures, sales, the delivery of services or products, training of employees, to financial controls boost the worth of your business. If this seems like work – it is. A prospective buyer won’t pay for having to figure it out themselves.
3. They have a great management team: Well managed businesses (by someone other than the owner), with clear management practices and especially with a process for building new managers, are valuable.
4. The business is the brand: Businesses that have a well known & positive reputation, apart from the owner or any specific individual, are worth more. If the reputation of the business is built on the reputation of an individual, it will leave with that individual.
5. They’ve secured recurring revenue: Healthy businesses secure future sales into the future: This might be through subscriptions, customer loyalty programs, contracts or service agreements.
6. They can prove the business has momentum: Value is increased when it is clear that a business is on a growth course. It’s difficult to sell a buyer’s sweat equity. But you can sell growth if it can be shown that your business has momentum.
7. They keep clean books: This is rarer than what most people expect. Even large businesses often do a poor job with bookkeeping. The cleaner your books are, the easier it is to tell your financial story. To the degree that a buyer feels like they are rolling the dice on you – they aren’t as likely to pay as much.
8. They have a wide customer base: Many profitable businesses have lucrative contracts with one (or few) large customers. Their revenue is overly dependent on that customer. When that customer makes a change or disappears, it can tank a business.

A good rule of thumb is to make sure that no customer accounts for more than 10% of your revenues. Customer diversity is valuable.

9. They’ve developed a niche: Buyers buy for many reasons. Many are looking for something unique that you have that they want. This could be location, relationships, contracts, unique technology or processes.

Whatever it is, you may have something that makes you uniquely attractive to a more select group of buyers. That’s valuable.

The incredible value of bad feelings

I hate feeling bad. I feel bad about feeling bad. I don’t like feeling frustrated, impatient, angry, stressed, disappointed, embarrassed or all the rest.

But bad feelings make me move. when I think about it, some of the most important growth times in my life – personally and professionally – have come about because of “bad feelings.”

It used to be that when I felt bad feelings, I would do one of three things:

• Wallow in them
• Escape them
• Blame someone else for them

However, none of those responses solves anything. Perhaps you’ve discovered that as well.

Now, when I realize I’m carrying a negative feeling, it tells me that something needs to be changed. Something isn’t working in my life or has stopped working. I need to own the fact that I’m the only one who will create that change.

Now negative feelings start to spark an internal dialogue of “what do I need to change?”

When I make those changes, I grow.

I like good feelings. But it’s the negative ones that often drive growth.

Take good care,

Christian

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• Are you curious about what your business might be worth?
• Would you like to discover the specific steps you need to take to increase its value and become highly attractive to a buyer?
• Are you planning on handing it over to family or employees and you want to ensure long-term success?

If so, contact me now.